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Cover of The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Tombs of Atuan

Ursula K. Le Guin

A child priestess trapped in a tomb-temple meets a wizard who forces her to question everything she was taught.

First published 2001 · Earthsea Cycle

FantasyYoung Adult

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Story

Tenar is taken as a child from her family and raised in an isolated temple complex as the reincarnated high priestess of the Nameless Ones. Renamed Arha, she lives by ritual, darkness, duty, and fear, guarding the Tombs of Atuan and learning to accept a world defined by obedience and confinement.

Her life changes when a wizard enters the tombs in search of a hidden treasure. The intrusion creates a clash between duty and curiosity, faith and doubt, captivity and freedom. As Tenar and the stranger navigate the labyrinth beneath the temple, the story turns inward as much as outward, focusing on what Tenar has been taught to believe and what she begins to see for herself.

The novel builds toward a choice that will determine whether Tenar remains bound to the tombs or leaves them behind. Along the way, the book develops her inner awakening, her changing understanding of power and trust, and the relationship between darkness, identity, and selfhood.

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In the Earthsea Cycle series

Shown by first publication year; this may not be reading order.

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Details

Authors
Ursula K. Le Guin
First published
2001
Genres
Fantasy, Young Adult, Classics, High Fantasy, Magic, Adventure, Science Fiction
Subjects
Magic · Novela fantástica estadounidense · Magic in fiction · Fiction · Fantasy · Wizards · American Fantasy fiction · Children's stories · Wizards in fiction · Magic -- Fiction · Wizards -- Fiction · Fantasy fiction · Newbery Honor · Fiction, general · Large type books · Women priests · Juvenile fiction · Thieves · Tombs · Adventure stories · Young adult fiction · Fantastic fiction · Children's Books - Young Adult Fiction · Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12) · Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic · Juvenile Fiction / Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic · Children's fiction · Ged (Fictitious character) · Ged (Fictional character) · Hiding places · Earthsea (Imaginary place) · Fiction, science fiction, general · Fiction, fantasy, general · Ged (fictitious character), fiction
ISBN-13
9780689845369

[DEV NOTE: Eventually use our own synthesized data.]